The present invention relates to protection of ships and harbors from attack from other vessels.
During peacetime, ships such as Naval assets, have been vulnerable to attack from small, fast vessels when the ships are in port. The USS Cole was vulnerable because the ship""s captain could not differentiate between boats that were authorized to come along side and the terrorist vessel that exploded beside it.
Because of the USS Cole incident in Yemen and the threat of terrorism against naval assets, the Navy is searching for a viable solution to its problem. In the past, the Navy has tried to protect its assets by putting out buoys, logs, fenders or oil booms in the hopes of stopping these craft by creating a wall that would stop penetration into restricted areas. They have placed guard boats in the water to intercept approaching craft. In wartime, they have mined harbors in order to secure their vessels, but there is no system designed specifically to stop small boats from entering restricted areas.
Thus, a need still exists for a light weight, easily deployable barrier system for protecting a vessel.
There are several difficulties to overcome when designing such a barrier. The barrier itself must be portable so that it can be deployed from a ship when it is needed. It must be able to stop a vessel weighing 20,000 pounds moving at 80 feet per second. It must also be able to withstand the rigors of an ocean environment, such as strong tidal currents and swells.
The present invention overcomes the difficulties discussed by using the ocean and the force of the vessel itself to stop, destroy or inhibit the forward movement of the craft. The present invention may use the force of the attacking vessel and the ocean itself in a variety of different ways.
An embodiment of the invention uses a barrier that may capture the bow of the attacking vessel as it comes in contact with the barrier using a fence, net, cable or other device that is itself attached beneath the surface to an anchor, auger, sea anchor or like device. As the vessel continues forward, the fence, net or cable is pulled taut and the forward momentum of the vessel is translated down onto the bow. Once the bow is underwater, the center of gravity of the vessel will be higher than the bow, causing severe drag on the bow, plunging the bow deeper below the surface. If the vessel has enough velocity, the stern of the vessel will rotate around the submerged bow, then the stern will flip over the bow, capsizing and destroying the vessel. If the vessel does not have enough velocity to capsize, the majority of its force will be spent on the ocean as the bow drives in, stopping it.
In another embodiment, the invention may, in a sense, use the ocean itself as a barrier by bringing the ocean up into a wall of water that can stop, destroy or otherwise arrest the attacking vessel. A container, either flexible or inflexible in nature, is filled with sea water and supported above the surface by containers filled with air or other flotation type material below the surface that more than equal the volume of water above the surface. This not only serves as a barrier but also serves as a blast protection, to mitigate the effects of an explosive device.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus for protecting ships and harbors.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for protecting ships and harbors.